Adventures in Otherworld! Warriors of the Afterlife!
"Hey Kaiou," Goku said as she, Kaiou, and Bubbles walked along Snake Way with halos over their heads, "How come you didn't get wished back with everyone else?"
"I chose not to," Kaiou explained. "It's not like I was going to just leave you wandering in eternity by yourself. It'd be about a century before anyone else you knew showed up."
"Aww, thanks!" Goku replied cheerfully.
"Besides," Kaiou added, "Where else am I going to go? Since, y'know, someone blew up my planet!"
"I said I was sorry!"
"It's been three hours! I'm still allowed to be mad!"
"Where are we going, anyway?" Goku asked. "We're not going back to the Check-in station, are we?"
"Ohh no," Kaiou assured her with a bit of a grin. "Well, yes. But that's not our final destination. Once we get there, I'll get us a ferry to Daikaiou's planet. He's kinda like my boss. That's where the best students of the four Kaious gather, the greatest fighters to have ever lived from all four quadrants of existeeeee!" Kaiou's explanation was turned into a squeal as Goku grabbed her and Bubbles under her arms and teleported to the check-in station using Instant Transmission. A few minutes of filling out paperwork and a few seconds of waiting followed after that before the trio were on a ferry to the Daikaiou's planet.
"So what other warriors will be there?" Goku asked eagerly, her eyes starry as she practically bounced in her seat. The ferrymaster, a skeleton in a long black cloak, silently turned to give her a menacing stare and made a threatening motion with his oar before returning to his duty.
"Oh, there'll be all sorts of warriors there," Kaiou assured her. "Though I haven't exactly kept up with who South, East, or West have trained in a few millennia, I'm sure you'll run into my best student."
"I thought I was your best student," Goku pointed out with no small amount of confusion.
"You may very well be," Kaiou admitted, "But I won't know until I see how you match up against… Olibu." For some reason, just the way Kaiou said the warrior's name made Goku's skin prickle with excitement. "Many of Earth's legends are based off of his great deeds. In fact, you already know one of them."
"I do?" Goku asked curiously.
"Oh sure, sure," Kaiou said with a grin. "Snake Way? Who do you think put the snake there?"
OoOoOoO
Ten Thousand Years Ago
Humanity shivered in their stone homes as thunder clapped and the great serpent coiled and writhed in the skies above. Lightning flashed, illuminating the beast's body in shadows. It seemed to stretch for miles unending and every time its head burst through the clouds it let out an ungodly cry that stabbed fear into the hearts of men. Their arrows and catapults had done nothing to stop its advance and it seemed all that was left to do was wait for the end. They prayed to the gods for someone to save them in this, their darkest hour.
Atop the highest mountain in the world, breaking over the clouds to look the beast in the eye, came Olibu. He glared from the mountain's peak at the beast with his amethyst eyes that burned with fire and his great starmetal warhammer slung across his shoulders.
"My father told me," he said to himself, "That when this final labor was done, I would see my honor restored and find my place among the gods." He brought his warhammer forward and prepared to throw himself at the beast. "Thou shalt die this day, demon!" he bellowed in challenge as he leaped off the mountain and flew at the serpent. He swung his mighty hammer as the snake opened its jaws and its poisoned fangs gleamed in the moonlight. The titanic battle shook the very foundations of heaven and earth.
To his great surprise, Olibu found himself standing atop the coiled carcass of the snake on the edge of a platform overlooking a sea of yellow clouds. He remembered the final blow he struck on his enemy and had felt his last breath slip from his body as he succumbed to the poison that coursed through his blood from the wounds he had taken in battle. Now, though, he was unharmed. Yet this was not the great mountain he was promised. These were not the hallowed halls of Elysium. Where was his godly father? With his great eyes, Olibu saw a speck in the far distance. He hopped down from the snake's corpse and grabbed it by the fangs, hurling it to the horizon with all his might. To his astonishment, the snake froze in midair and hung over the yellow clouds. With nothing else to do and questions beyond counting, Olibu set off toward the speck, hoping to find his answers.
OoOoOoO
"So his dad wasn't a god?" Goku asked as the ferry continued on its way.
"No," Kaiou stated matter of factly. "He was just an exceptionally powerful and long-lived mortal like the rest of his clan. Olibu never met him in Otherworld, of course. His father was a bit too wicked to get to hold onto his body." They came upon a massive wall of clouds and Kaiou grinned. "Ah," he said, "Here we are!" Goku grinned broadly and bounced excitedly again as the ferry broke through the cloud wall and hung in the air above a world easily a hundred times the size of Kaiou's home planet. Maybe even bigger than the Earth! Far down below, Goku could see a world absolutely crawling with fighters. The ferry began to descend but Goku couldn't wait.
"Look out, dead guys!" Goku crowed as she climbed onto the ferry's edge. "Here I come!" She hopped off the boat and rolled into an expert swimmer's dive as she plummeted toward the planet below. Kaiou shook his head with a rueful smile before looking to the ferrymaster.
"You're… uh… you're still gonna charge me for three people, aren't you?" he asked. The ferrymaster nodded and Kaiou groaned. "Rats," he muttered as he fished for his wallet.
"Come now, Mijorin!" Olibu called in a booming voice as he laughed and tossed the purple fox-man away. "You'll have to do better than that!" A grey-skinned man with dark, two-tailed hair and a red gem in the center of his forehead came at Olibu from behind with a flying kick but the mightiest Earth-man ever born turned and dropped his friend with a right hook to the face. Tapkar and Maraikoh, the diminutive helmeted man and great purple dragon-man from the Western Quadrant attacked him in a pincer movement but he dropped the pair of them with a pair of lariats. The four warriors, along with the bearded Chapuchai, the fishman Arqua, the masked and muscular blue Papoi, the red insectoid man Torbie, and the frogman Froug, were left groaning in barely conscious heaps. "Perhaps another time, my fellows," he told them encouragingly. "For now, though, I'm afraid that I, Olibu, am still the greatest warrior alive or dead, save of course for–"
Whoever Olibu might have mentioned next was cut off when Goku impacted with the ground and sent him sprawling end over end. She climbed eagerly out of the hole as Olibu got quickly to his feet and the pair stared at one another curiously. She was a muscular woman in golden yellow and blue with spiky black hair and dark, inquisitive eyes that had a warrior's glint to them. He was an absolute mountain of a man, two feet taller than her with shoulders twice the size of her own head. He had long, flowing golden hair, purple eyes that burned with endless intensity, and wore a white chiton with brown leather straps to secure it over his shoulders, brown boots, and an orange band across his forehead. They both had halos over their heads.
"Hi there!" Goku greeted excitedly as she stuck out her hand. "I'm Goku! I'm from Earth, too!" Olibu looked at her hand for a moment before he let out a booming laugh and taking her hand in his own giant mitt to shake it eagerly.
"Well met, fair Goku!" he replied enthusiastically. "Are you also a student of the Kaiou?"
"Yup!" Goku told him as she met the strength and enthusiasm of his handshake, to Olibu's slight surprise. "He says I might be his best student!"
"Then there is but one way to settle this," Olibu declared. "We shall grapple to see who is the greatest pupil of the Lord of Worlds!"
"That sounds awesome!" Goku agreed eagerly. Wrestling was fun! She hadn't done it in what felt like forever!
"Fetch the oil!" Olibu bellowed before casting off his chiton. Goku looked momentarily surprised before she shrugged and went along with it, stripping down as well.
OoOoOoO
Pikkon sat up with an annoyed groan at the sound of a rumble on the planet below reaching his superhearing as he sat on one of the satellite spheres orbiting the Daikaiou's planet. This was supposed to be his peaceful spot, where he could be left alone. It was far enough away that you actually couldn't hear Olibu laughing. Most of the time. Why was everyone from the North Quadrant so loud? People in the West knew how to keep their mouths shut. Not that he really came up here to meditate or reflect on the universe or the meaning of life or any of that crap. He just wanted to be left alone. Take a nap. Count clouds. Everyone down there was so much weaker. So beneath him. He could defeat each and every one of them with a single blow. Pikkon'd been the strongest being to ever live or die for fifty thousand years. It was mind-numbingly boring. There were times that he contemplated letting go of his physical form and passing on to Heaven to be reincarnated but he always backed out when he decided that the only thing more boring than being the strongest was to not exist at all.
The last time he'd been challenged was thirty thousand years ago, when he'd battled that corrupted ogre who'd been mutated from all the sin that had ever existed. That seemed like it was going to be fun. Then the Kaioushin had shown up and put a stop to it.
"Better go see what the hell Olibu's up to now," Pikkon muttered as he stood up and put on his weighted robes. He dusted off his weighted cap and put it on his head before leaping down off the rock to plummet toward the planet below. Maybe the new dead guy, whoever he was, might last a second punch. "Yeah, right…"
OoOoOoO
Fifty Thousand Years Ago
"How bad is it, Chancellor?" Pikkon asked as he stood in the High Chancellor Baowan, leader of the planet of Teywon. The azure-skinned, heavy set older man sat behind his desk with his hands folded and a grim expression on his face.
"Very bad," Baowan told him gravely. "Your old nemesis Yeemin played one last trick on us. It seems he detonated a bomb inside the sun minutes before his execution and now the sun is dying. In twelve minutes, the last of the sun's rays will reach our planet. Then, we've got a few minutes before total darkness and about a week before the plants die and we all start to freeze to death."
"If only he'd used his vast intellect for good," Pikkon muttered sadly as he shook his head, mourning his most hated enemy even now. "Is there anything I can do?"
"There is," Baowan assured him. "My scientists believe that your Thunder Flash Attack might be able to restart the sun. The only thing is that, well, you'd have to be in the heart of it for it to take full effect."
"I understand, sir," Pikkon replied as he nodded slowly. Even as powerful and durable as he was, Pikkon would never survive the heat of the sun's core. It would have to be his life for the lives of all the world. He made his way toward the large glass doors of the balcony overlooking the capital city.
"God bless you, Pikkon," the High Chancellor said breathlessly as he stood up to salute Pikkon. The green man, the only one of his race, looked back with a smile and shook his head.
"I'm not anyone special," Pikkon said as he had countless times, "I'm just lucky." Then he flew out the window. He didn't head straight out into space, however. He headed back to his apartment first. There was someone he had to see. His wife Gwabaou was waiting for him on the couch in their living room, already shivering. Her turquoise skin light up at the sight of him and she leaped over the couch to throw herself into his arms. Then she looked up at his face and saw that he wasn't smiling.
"What is it?" she asked softly, tears already in her eyes. "What do they need you to do?" A tear rolled down her cheek and Pikkon wiped it away with a thumb. He loved her so much. Loved her with all his heart. This was the only thing that gave him fear. Not the countless battles or the brushes with death. This moment. Knowing that he would lose her forever.
"I'm the only one who can fix the sun, Gwa," he told her. "I only have this one chance to save the world." She smiled through her tears and pressed a kiss to his lips.
"That's all you've ever needed."
"I love you," Pikkon said reverently as he held her face in his hands, "Until the end of time." He kissed her again before he was agonizingly forced to pull away. He put his cloak over her shoulders before he flew out the window and barreled out into the sky at top speed with both fists forward.
In seconds, he was out of Teywon's atmosphere. As he hurtled past planets and stars and barreled toward the grey, collapsing husk of their sun; his thoughts were on her. How he wished they'd had more time. Wished that they could have had more. How he wished that the genetic mutation thad had caused him to be born with green skin and that had given his awesome, insurmountable powers had not made it so they could never have children. Then, almost before he knew it, he was inside the sun and there was nothing left to do.
"THUNDER FLASH ATTACK!"
OoOoOoO
"Well met, Goku," Olibu congratulated after his defeat and the pair shook hands. "You are indeed a mighty warrior and the finest in our quadrant."
"Nah," Goku told him with a shrug. "You should see my son, Gohan! He's even stronger than me!" Olibu seemed almost startled by that information before he laughed again. He seemed to find humor in everything.
"Then the lad must be a mighty warrior indeed!" he declared. "Perhaps, when he dies, he can even challenge–"
"Olibu," Pikkon remarked dryly as he landed in front of them. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Ah, Pikkon!" the behemoth declared jovially. "I was just talking about you! I was testing the mettle of our new arrival here, Goku of the Northern Quadrant."
"Okaaaay," Pikkon said with a roll of his eyes. "But why are you naked?" Olibu looked at him curiously.
"How else are we supposed to wrestle?" he asked.
"Yeah," Goku agreed. "Works for me!"
"Put your clothes on!" Pikkon snapped and they quickly did so.
"So hey," Goku said as she tugged on her golden yellow overshirt. "You're the guy Olibu was talking about, right? The strongest guy here?" Pikkon shrugged. "Awesome! Let's fight!"
"You sure you wanna do that?" Pikkon asked in a bored tone. Goku nodded eagerly and Pikkon shrugged. "If you say so," he muttered. He threw out a jab faster than Goku could see and she instantly vanished from sight, hurtling over the horizon. "Yeah," he muttered as he started to turn away. "That's about what I fi–" Then Goku was in front of him with a bright smile despite the bruise on her cheek. "What the–?!"
"Not bad!" Goku said encouragingly before she got into her stance. "Now I know what I'm working with!" Then she powered up into a Super Saiyan, her hair spiking up on end and her eyes flashing teal.
"Oh," Pikkon remarked once he was over his initial shock. "So you're one of those Super Saiyans."
"There's other Saiyans here besides me?" Goku asked. Pikkon shrugged lackadaisically.
"I think there's like… five or six. Maybe ten. Definitely not more than twenty. I beat them too," Pikkon told her, "Centuries ago. Still wanna try your luck?"
"For the strongest guy here," Goku retorted, "You really don't seem all that interested in fighting."
"Just haven't met anyone worth my while," Pikkon explained as he got into his guard.
"Lemme fix that!" Goku exclaimed with a grin as she flew at him. The two met in a cataclysmic exchange that had not been seen by any among the dead warriors in eons beyond counting. They struck, dodged, and countered with blistering speeds. Even Olibu, the now-third mightiest being to ever have lived, struggled to keep up with their tremendous power. They finally came to a stop, each one scuffed and scratched, sweating slightly with their breath only slightly ragged.
"I'll admit," Pikkon said as he caught his breath, "I'm almost impressed with you, Goku. Almost." He could feel something stirring in his heart when he fought her. It wasn't much, though. He hadn't gotten serious, after all. Goku chuckled and nodded.
"Thanks," she told him before smirking. "Now are you gonna stop holding back?" Pikkon looked at her in surprise.
"You can tell?" he asked. Goku nodded again and Pikkon chuckled. "Okay. I mean, if you wanna lose that badly–"
"Were you planning on talking me to death?" Goku interrupted while flicking her halo. "'Cause there might be a problem with that." Pikkon rolled his eyes and took off his cloak and hat, stuffing the cloak into the hat before dropping it on the ground. The tall black hat crashed into the earth and burrowed down into a crater, shaking the ground under their feet with its impact. 'Huh,' Goku thought. 'Weighted clothing. Funny how that works out.' Then Pikkon was on her in a flash, his fist cracking across her jaw and sending her flying.
To Pikkon's surprise, however, she rebounded from the blow and met him strength for strength. No matter how hard he pushed, she pushed him back. She had an answer for every attack and her speed and power actually matched his own!
'What is this?' Pikkon thought as the battle raged on. 'What is this wild pulsing in my heart? This fire burning through my veins?!' As Goku's elbow drove into his stomach and his knee cracked into her temple, he realized what it was. 'It's been so long that I'd forgotten it… forgotten the exhilaration of a real fight!' Their fists met in a constant explosion, a furious rush exchange that shook the very foundations of the Daikaiou's planet. 'This is the feeling I've been searching for for fifty thousand years!' Their rush was a complete stalemate and the shockwave sent both of them flying back, stopping themselves to dig their feet into the dirt and tear apart the landscape.
"Come on!" Goku called out in a challenge, practically bursting with excitement. "Is that all you've got?!" Pikkon actually smiled. Something Olibu had not ever seen him do.
"You're definitely a worthy opponent, Goku!" Pikkon called in response. "You're the strongest warrior I've ever faced. I'm afraid, though, that only one of us can be the strongest in the Otherworld!" He started going through the precise and articulate motions as the ground beneath his feet began to burn. "So here's my best shot!"
"Awesome!" Goku declared as she brought her hands to her side. "Then here's mine! Kaaaameeee…"
"Thundeeeer…"
"Haaameeee…"
"Flaaaaash…"
"HAAAAAA!"
"ATTACK!"
The pillar of red flame collided with the beam of blue-white light and neutralized each other in a dazzling eruption of light that could be seen from the check-in station. Goku dropped out of her Super Saiyan state as she and Pikkon both collapsed, exhausted and drained of their energy. Then, in the stillness, Pikkon… laughed. First it was a snicker. Then a chuckle. A guffaw, here and there. Then Pikkon threw back his head and let out a hearty, full-throated laugh that shook his entire body. A rival. An equal. A challenge. At last! Though he was as dead as he had ever been, he finally felt alive.
"Hey!" cried a rail-thin old man in sunglasses with a bushy white beard as long as his thick white hair. He looked comically out of place with his denim jeans, white shirt, denim jacket and loafers with a boombox over his shoulder that blasted only the gnarliest, sickest jams in creation. "What the heck is all this racket, man? You two are harshin' my vibes!" This was the Daikaiou. The second-highest being in all of creation.
OoOoOoO
"Goku!" Kaiou called as Goku was sparring with Pikkon. She'd been dead now for nearly two years and she was starting to get used to how the way her undead body felt. How she never needed to sleep, how she never got tired or needed to eat.
She still ate. She was Goku, after all.
"Time out!" Goku exclaimed and Pikkon immediately stopped, his punch an inch away from her face. "What is it, Kaiou?" she called down to him. There was a man standing next to him that looked strangely familiar to her.
"There's someone here who'd like to see you!" Kaiou explained. The man looked up at her and grinned.
"Is that my little Goku?" he asked playfully. "It can't be! You're much too big!" Goku gasped with recognition and squealed with excitement as she shook her fists.
"Grandpa!" she cried before turning to Pikkon. "GottacutthisoneshortPikkonseeyoulaterbyyyeee!" Then she flew down to her grandfather and lifted him bodily off the ground, laughing exuberantly as she hugged him tightly and leaving Pikkon very confused.
"I'm happy to see you too, Goku!" Grandpa Gohan assured his granddaughter as she squeezed him. "Although," he admitted, "I was hoping I wouldn't be seeing you for a long time. What happened?"
"Well," Goku began as she set him down. "It's kind of a long story."
"I don't know if you've noticed," he remarked, "But I don't think either of us are going anywhere." Goku grinned and started to tell her story before something stopped her.
"Uh, Grandpa?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"Could you…" she waved her hand in the air, not knowing the words to use. "Look old? I've never seen you like this and it's kinda throwing me off." As he was now, Grandpa Gohan looked about thirty. His bushy whiskers were no more than a black pencil mustache and he had a full head of shaggy black hair.
"Ah," he said. "I see. Very well, if it will make you more comfortable." Grandpa Gohan concentrated and, before her very eyes, aged to the point where he looked familiar to her, with his large white mustache and a cap atop his bald head. "Is that better?"
"Mmhmm," Goku said with an enthusiastic nod. Then they walked and she began to tell her tale. "Oh! I have a son! I named him after you!" She began excitedly.
"Oh, that's wonderful," Grandpa Gohan said proudly. "I'm glad you found someone special in your time on Earth, Goku. What's his name?"
"Suno," Goku said wistfully.
"...Isn't that a girl's name?"
"Yup!"
"Ah, I see. That's nice." Grandpa Gohan came to a stop. "I'm afraid I just have more questions now." Goku laughed.
OoOoOoO
"So it turned out that Jackie Chun was Master Roshi the whole time!" Goku exclaimed as if she were revealing a shocking secret. Grandpa Gohan chuckled.
"I recall that trick," he told her. "When I was under his tutelage, I entered the Budoukai as well. I was defeated in the finals by a mysterious Bruce Lao."
OoOoOoO
"So it turns out I have a brother!"
"Oh, really? Is he friendly?"
"Nah. He kidnapped Gohan so I teamed up with Piccolo to kick his butt."
"Ah. That's a shame."
OoOoOoO
"Really?" Grandpa Gohan asked. "Your hair turns blonde?" he looked at her curiously, as if studying her face and trying to picture it. "No," he said with a shake of his head. "I just can't see it."
"That's okay!" Goku assured him cheerfully. "I'll show you!" Then she powered up to Super Saiyan and Grandpa Gohan had to lift his jaw off the ground.
OoOoOoO
"So," Grandpa Gohan asked as they finished their walk around the world and Goku concluded her tale. "What will you do now, Goku?"
"I still have to reach the second stage of Super Saiyan," Goku told him. "I know there's even more after that. I sensed Gohan starting to break through to it during his battle with Cell. I just have to push myself."
"Really?" Grandpa Gohan asked in disbelief. "How much stronger do you need to be?"
"It's not about need," Goku told him. "It's what I want to do. I have to keep pushing myself. Even now that I'm dead, I know that there's more for me to do! I have to keep climbing!" Grandpa Gohan laughed as Goku dropped down to a knee for him to hug her.
"I'm so proud of you, Goku," he whispered tenderly as he held her close.
"Thanks, Grandpa," she whispered back as she held him. "I've missed you a lot."
OoOoOoO
As Goku gave a final cry of power and rage and broke through into the third Super Saiyan form, the Kaioushin watched from the Sacred World of the Kaiou with growing interest.
"Interesting. Very interesting…" For seven years, the Kaioushin had watched the mortal Son Goku's power grow. She could be very useful in what was to come next. "Kibito! Send for the mortal Uranai Baba. I think Goku has more than earned her one day on Earth, don't you?"